Re: Documentation flaw in autoconf

[Michaël Grünewald]

Eric Blake wrote:

> [adding bug-autoconf; replies can drop bug-gnu-utils]

So did I.

> According to Michaël Grünewald on 5/29/2008 4:21 PM:
> | Autconf will substitute in Makefile's templates many ``Preset Output
> | Variables''. Some values of these variables represents path to
> | directories in the file system. The documentation (section 3.3.1) does
> | not tell whether these paths are absolute or relative,
>
> Which section did you have in mind for this improvement?  There is no
> 3.3.1 in the 2.62 manual:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html

I feel sorry, I should have checked that my manual is up to date, the 
correct section numbering is 4.8.1, its URL is

http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Preset-Output-Variables

it is just the section you are referring to below.

This is where the improvement could go.

> | By the way, it could be useful to have some variables representing paths
> | to directories and being guaranteed to be absolute. (I think especially
> | to top_srcdir).
>
> There is - use abs_top_srcdir.
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Preset-Output-Variables.html#Preset-Output-Variables 
>
> | Here is the version of autoconf I use:
> |
> |  > autoconf --version
> |  autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.61
>
> You may want to consider upgrading to 2.62.
>
> |
> | P.S.: I just noticed that Autoconf's documentation refers to
> | address@hidden' whereas address@hidden' shall
> | now be used.
>
> Where in the manual did you find that?  The correct address should be
> 'address@hidden' and not bug-gnu-utils.  I don't see the
> bug-gnu-utils anywhere in the 2.62 manual.

Well, my manual is quite outdated. Quite surprisingly I have 2.13's 
manual with 2.61 installed. (I run FreeBSD, with a quite up-to-date port 
tree.)
--
All the best,
Michaël Grünewald